Everything But The Fish - A different door to underwater photography

This article shall introduce you to some unconventional underwater photography by our member and friend Sharon Rainis. The idea for this article is a result of my curiosity, as I was inspired and very pleased by the photographs of Sharon in our weekly photo contest. I wanted to know more about her motivation, the ideas behind the photographs and how she did it. Sharon was kind enough to answer my questions with a complete article, that you are about to read. We personally met Sharon this year in Eilat, where she suddenly found herself in the position of the model rather then the photographer. Together with her Nikon D70 and Ikelite housing she became the (now famous) cover theme for our Red Sea Underwater competition 2006 live webcast. Read the story of an enthusiastic underwater photographer who just recently found her passion for underwater photography.

Enjoy it! - Lars

My story isn't the classic one about the underwater photographer who already began to dive at the age of 8, and has been aiming his camera towards the fish ever since. In fact, my first dive was only at the age of 21 in Thailand, about 5 years ago, and even then it was just a result of peer pressure. My friend was so anxious to take a diving course, and all she needed was a buddy... This experience was about to draw my whole future into a different course.

Going back home, to Israel, the diving continued only as a hobby. At that time I had a very full urban life. Even so, diving had soon integrated with my passion to photography, and the part of these two in my life slowly took over all of my spare time. Eventually there were no choices left, and I had to bring the diving and the underwater photography to the center of my life. This is how I found myself leaving my family, my friends and my growing career in the favor of working as a PADI diving instructor in Eilat, which lays on the beach of the Red Sea. This reality provides me of infinite ideas and opportunities to photograph underwater.

My first underwater shots were taken with a simple digital camera, Canon Powershot A70. My equipment was gradually upgraded since then, and today I use a Nikon D70s SLR digital camera, an Ikelite housing, an Ikelite DS-125 underwater strobe and three lenses for different needs. Lately I've began to work for Fantasea in customer support and product testing, and these days I'm slowly switching my own equipment to Fantasea products.

For me, the most beautiful and exciting photographs aren't those which succeed to precisely capture the event behind the lens, but rather those which introduce an additional dimension into the photograph, a more personal one brought by the photographer. I alter the shutter speed, the aperture, the ISO, the position of the camera, and the color balance not in order to capture the situation as it is, but to capture the feeling it gave me as well. My aspiration is to introduce the viewer with something additional to what was actually standing behind the camera lens.

The objects in my photographs aren’t usually the fish, but human beings, as I focus on artistic photographs. Although I find the underwater world astounding in all means, I better express my imagination, my creativity and my personal feelings through artistic photographs. My models, above all, ought to feel very comfortable with water. They are required to hold their breath for a relatively long time, to use their lungs correctly in order to achieve a perfect neutral buoyancy, to take off their clothes in an inconvenient water temperature, and all this time without a mask and their eyes opened. They are also required of something else, which I find very difficult to describe in words, but I guess you could call it an ability to let the camera in. I happened to photograph some excellent divers that although they were very easy with the water, they just couldn't seem to emerge from inside, which usually creates an incredibly superficial image.

When taking wide angle shots, I usually prefer to use natural light rather than underwater strobes. Apart from the need of many strobes to evenly illuminate all objects in a wide angle shot, I admire the effect of sunlight underwater. The water softens the sun rays and creates a tender look of lights and shadows, which adds to the feeling of a three dimensional photograph, making it look so alive.

I always use the camera's manual mode, since I believe that altering the shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focus points can literally create magic. The most important tool I use underwater is the manual white balance, which is, to my opinion, the only way to obtain perfect colors. However, this does not replace the need to retouch those colors in photoshop later on. Since I shoot in RAW mode, which allows storing all the original information of the photograph taken in the memory card, editing the photographs in photoshop becomes very useful.

Most of all I like to borrow situations from land, and to capture them taking place underwater. I like to exaggerate the combination between man and water, and to imagine that instead of visiting the sea for only 45 minutes, a human is maintaining a whole and complete life there. I'm amazed to discover every time again how even an everyday deed like hanging up laundry seems more natural inside the water than outside, in cool fresh air.

First, most of my models are experienced diving instructors and excellent free divers due to the demanding situation. We're usually accompanied by a diver who handles the scene (providing air to the model, helping out with logistics and maintaining our safety). When photographing in open water, with no bottom underneath us, we appoint someone to supervise our depth. Everything is planned and agreed on before we enter the water, including each team member's role in the scene, the timetable, different postures and emergency procedures. After all we're limited by the model's decreasing body temperature, so time must be consumed effectively.

Each posture of the model is photographed from many angles, which means different depths and different sunlight directions. I also use different setting combinations and often find the bracketing very helpful (for example, for the same photograph, the camera automatically records three different files with three different white balance settings). Usually I go back with about 200-300 photographs, and then, only then, the hard work begins…


For more photographs and inspiration visit http://www.imperfections.biz

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